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["SISU!" <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>]

Gene GeRue wrote:
 Without a roof on the tank,
> think algae, leaves, and windblown debris, not to mention various 
> critters including mosquitos.

Pool cover???  You could even make one using foam boards attached with
duct tape if you so desired.  Again, I am not talking about using the
water for drinking, just for watering the garden and possibly fire fighting.


> How could dirty water be used in the garden? Only free-flowing 
> through a sizable pipe would avoid the plugging problem. Crud would 
> eventually diminish the flow of a pipe. Most people prefer the weep 
> hoses and those tiny holes easily plug up.

Weep hoses?  I consider that a luxury that I don't have.  Hoses with
holes require more pressure than gravity alone can usually provide.
'More pressure' means 'more work' needed.  I am lazier than that.  I am
cheaper than that, too, trying to cut electricity use where ever possible.
Dirty water in the garden?  I am surprised that you would consider
rainwater with algeal growth and fish waste as "dirty".
Here is what I did that worked really well:
Before I had raised beds, I planned my garden as follows...
Things that needed a lot of water were planted closest to the water
tank.  I have maybe 1 foot of drop(probably more like 8 inches) over a
100 foot row-it's relatively flat, in other words, but this would work
equally well with a steeper lay of land.  Each row ran downhill.
For the tomatoes, I hoed a trench, about 6 to 8 inches deep down the row
and planted tomatoes on either side of the trench in an alternating pattern.

O       O       O       O       O       O       O       O
-----------------------------------------------------------
    O       O       O       O       O       O       O

The trench and plants were mulched. If I had to do this again, I might
use that plastic 6" black french drain type hose laid in the trench.
My 'tank' was a 300 gallon plastic tank and I simply made a hose adapter
for the tank's bottom outlet.  I first put the hose about 3/4 of the way
down the row and opened the valve, watering the furthest plants first.
After 5 minutes or so, I moved the hose back to the halfway point, and
watered another five minutes, then moved it back to 1/4 of the way and
watered another 5 minutes, then I put the hose at the 'top' of the row
and allowed the water to run down the trench until I used about half of
the tank or less depending on how much rain we had gotten or how much
rain was expected for the coming days.  I used this same method for
other plants that required a lot of water and it worked really well.
You could do the same using a simple hose siphon and an above ground
pool that held rainwater, if you planned ahead and were able to place
the pool above the garden.
Yes, it required me to move the hose around, but I was out there weeding
anyway so it wasn't like I had to stand there and wait on it wasting
time.  It was low-tech, low cost, and made use of collected rainwater.
The garden didn't seem to care that the water was green with algae, and
since my tomatoes had to be tied back lower so that I could reach them,
I am assuming that the fish waste(pond comets) in my rainwater tank
helped fertilize the plants.    Dirty water????  My garden loved it.
Crud?  If you are catching rainwater (I thought this thread started out
talking about that), you shouldn't have crud.  Algae, yes, but crud?
What do you mean, Gene?  An enclosed tank doesn't collect leaves, and it
is easy to cover a pool/cistern to prevent leaf debris.

This year, with the ultra raised beds, my tank isn't high enough for
this simple gravity system to work.  I have a pump, but I didn't want to
use electricity to run it, so I mostly hauled water via 5 gallon bucket
to the beds and watered plants individually.  I did not water as much as
I should have due to my broken arm at the beginning of the summer and
the drought finally caught up with me, but had I been healthier, my
garden would have been just as productive this year as it was in years
past.   

Bev



--
Bevanron of EarthNSky Farm      GO NAVY!
Proud SUBMARINE Parents of a USS Key West Sailor
Sleep well tonight for somewhere in the ocean's depths,
MY son is protecting YOUR freedom.